Submit an Alexa Skill for Certification

Once you have completed developing and testing a new skill for Alexa, choose to deploy your skill for beta testing to a specified group of users, or you can submit it for certification for potential publication.

In either case, users can see the skill in the Amazon Alexa App and enable it for use with their devices. The Amazon Alexa App is available for Fire OS, Android, iOS, and desktop web browsers.

Testing the Skill and Completing the Submission Checklist

When you submit your skill to the Alexa Store, it must pass a certification process before it can be published live to Amazon customers. To ensure that your skill will meet the certification requirements, complete all of the testing described in the Certification Requirements for Custom Skills.

Navigate to the Alexa section by clicking Apps & Services and then clicking Alexa in the top navigation. This displays a list of your existing Alexa skills.

Find the skill to submit in the list and choose Edit.

Note that there should be a green check mark next to each section. If any sections are missing the check mark, this means that at least one required field is not filled in. Review the section and complete all required fields.

Click the Submit for Certification button. When prompted to confirm, click Yes.

Once you have submitted the skill, it shows "Certification" in the Status column on list of skills. While it is in the certification process, you cannot make any further edits to the configuration. If you change your mind, you can select the skill, then click the Withdraw from Certification button.

After Amazon completes the review, you will receive an email at the address associated with your developer portal account:

If the skill has been certified, the email will provide an estimate for when it will become available to end users.

If the skill could not be certified, the email provides information about the issues you need to correct. You can make any necessary changes and then re-submit.

Publication Status

The current publication status for a skill is displayed in the developer portal on your list of skills, in the Status column:

Development The skill is available only to you. If you have enabled it for testing, you can test it on devices registered to your developer account.

Certification Amazon is currently reviewing the skill for publication. During this time, you cannot edit the configuration.

Live The skill has been published and is available to users. You cannot edit the configuration for live skills. To start development on an updated version, make your changes on the development version instead.

Continuing to Work on Your Skill after Publication

Once your skill is published to end users, your skill's status changes to live. You cannot change the configuration for a live skill. A new development version is automatically created in the developer portal. This version has the same information as the original live version. You can use it to continue to work on your skill to improve it and add features.

The live and development versions are displayed together in the list of skills in the developer portal. When collapsed, the skill shows the development version:

Published skill with row collapsed

If you expand the row, you can see both the development and live versions:

Published skill with row expanded

You can work on the new version independently of the original. For instance, you can add more intents and sample utterances to the interaction model, change the description, and so on. If you make code changes in your service, you should use a different endpoint or Lambda function to test those changes so you do not disrupt users who are using the live version.

When you submit your new version for certification, both versions remain in your list until the new version is certified. Once the new version is certified, it becomes live and replaces the previous live version. A new development version is then created so that you can continue making updates.

It is recommended that your update maintains backward compatibility with the previous version for a seamless user experience. For example, while your update may add new intents, you should continue to support the previous intents that users are already using.